Events

• November 19 - Henry Barrow, English Puritan and Separatist is imprisoned.
• The reign of Emperor Ogimachi of Japan ends and Emperor Go-Yozei ascends to the throne of Japan.
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi becomes grand minister of Japan.
• William Harrison becomes canon of Windsor.
• Luis Barahona de Soto publishes Primera parte de la Angélica.
• William Camden publishes Britannia.
• Simon Stevin, a Dutch mathematician demonstrates that two objects of different weight fall with the same speed.
• Roanoke, the first English colony in the New World, is founded.
• St. Augustine, Florida, and Santo Domingo in the modern day Dominican Republic are plundered and burned by English sea captain Sir Francis Drake.
• Jacobus Gallus composes his motet O magnum mysterium.
• Caesar Baronius publishes a new edition of Roman martyrology.
• The first HMS Vanguard is launched in England.
• Thomas Cavendish, English explorer, begins his circumnavigation of the globe.

Births

• Johann Valentin Andrea, theologian
• Axel Oxenstierna's half-brother, Gabriel Bengtsson
• Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel and Surrey
• Cornelis van Poelenburgh , a Dutch painter of Italian landscapes
• Jacob Revius , poet who also worked also on the new bible translation known as the Statenbijbel
• October 9 - Archduke Leopold V of Austria, Regent of Tyrol

Deaths

• January 25 - Lucas Cranach the Younger, painter
• March 26 - Joan Naylor, mother of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork
• June 28 - Primoz Trubar, the author of the first printed book in Slovenian
• September 20 - Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed)
• October 17 - Sir Philip Sidney, English poet, courtier and soldier (killed in battle)
• Sir Anthony Babington, conspirator (executed)
• Stefan Batory, King of Poland
• Andrea Gabrieli, Italian composer
• Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma
• Joachim Ernest , united the whole of Anhalt under his rule
• Peter Symonds , will established funding for the Peter Symonds College
• Theoleptus II , Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople